This isn’t the first time Afternic has offered a parking rebate

Afternic offered a “Park & Sell” rebate until GoDaddy acquired the business.

I was looking through the Domain Name Wire archives last week when I came across an article I wrote in 2014 about changes GoDaddy made to Afternic after acquiring the company the prior year.

One of the changes was discontinuing the “Park & Sell” program. In 2010, Afternic introduced the program offering a 15% commission on any domains parked with Afternic when they sold. This compared to the regular 20% commission.

Afternic likely started the program for two reasons. First, the “for sale” banner at the top of parked domains increased sales. Second, the company was able to generate revenue from the pay-per-click ads on parked domains.

The offer was similar to GoDaddy’s new commission structure in that it rewards people for pointing domains to the company’s landers. Parking ad revenue isn’t a driver this time; it’s all about capturing sales that originate on the lander. Oh, and the default commission is now 25%.

While 25% may seem steep, GoDaddy previously charged more. The domain sales service it offered before acquiring Afternic took a 30% cut, and the domains had to be registered at GoDaddy and were only sold on GoDaddy.